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Eisenhower’s New Residency Programs Fill All Positions

This summer, Eisenhower Medical Center will welcome 22 medical school graduates to its residency programs. The Coachella Valley’s first Teaching Hospital recently learned that it has filled 100 percent of the spots in the hospital’s first-ever residency program match — just four percent of community hospitals starting multiple, new, medium-to-large size programs actually fill all available slots in a residency program’s first year.

How does the “match” process work? Medical school graduates from around the world apply to residency programs via the electronic residency application service (ERAS). They are then matched with their residency programs through the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP), on what is commonly known as Match Day. This year, Match Day fell on March 15 — the day when applicants found out where they will perform their residencies.

Eisenhower Medical Center’s School of Graduate Medical Education and Research residency programs include Family Medicine and Internal Medicine. Eisenhower’s matching process began months earlier through an application method coordinated by ERAS and 17 weeks of interviews. Residency programs throughout the country interview applicants and rank them. Similarly, medical students rank the programs in the order of their preference.

Each spring, the applicants and residency programs create a rank list, then wait to be matched through the NRMP. Computers process both students’ and programs’ lists at the same time. Medical students are then assigned to their highest-ranking program of choice that also expressed interest in them.

“We are thrilled that our new Family Medicine and Internal Medicine residency programs filled all of their available spots in the match this year,” says G. Aubrey Serfling, President and Chief Executive Officer. Adds Joseph Scherger, MD, MPH, Vice President, Primary Care and Academic Affairs, “We are delighted to welcome a diverse group of highly qualified residents from medical schools in the United States and abroad.”

Since Eisenhower’s residency programs filled all available positions in the match, Eisenhower was able to avoid the first year of the supplemental offer and acceptance program, or SOAP — NRMP’s program to pair unmatched applicants with unfilled programs.

Eisenhower Medical Center launched its new School of Graduate Medical Education and Research in November 2011. Accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education for the School’s residency programs makes Eisenhower one of 25 community hospitals in California to become a teaching hospital. Of the nearly 6,000 hospitals in the country, only six percent are teaching hospitals. An independent Reuter’s survey found that the Valley had a deficit of 102 primary care physicians based on physician/population ratios. By launching the School of Graduate Medical Education and Research and filling all 22 residency positions, Eisenhower is working to fulfill this need.